D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 1668 The Edge of the World

--- lily ---

lily didn't head down immediately. well, she tried but swiftly realised the problem and managed to pull herself up before it became a real issue. you see, lily was planning to use her shadows to slow herself down. either by making a parachute style of thing or by pressing her shadows against the walls and using the friction to slow herself.

what lily didn't realise was that obviously shadows have no friction. much like how her shadow only slices or defends because she wants it to, lily had to will the friction into proper existence. her first attempt had her sliding down at full speed despite the shadows, and she was glad her reflexes were good enough to send a shadow hand upwards so she could be reeled back in.

turns out, giving shadows friction is a bit harder then it seems. lily thought she had it figured out, just will it to be like the other properties... but that imparted way too much friction. lily ended up with something closer to that sticky flytrap paper then... well honestly lily didn't know what she wanted at first, which probably didn't help matters. in the end it took a bit of testing, but specifically imagining one of those sticky hand toys... but not a new one, more like an old one that had lost a good deal of its stick.

that was apparently the perfect image to let lily slide down. it wasn't fast, it wasn't glamorous, but it was safe and she made progress at a steady rate. lily kept that careful manipulation up for a few minutes until she could hear voices all of a sudden. lily paused in place, changing her mental image for the shadows to that same flypaper from earlier and dipping her head downwards. it took a bit of sliding around but soon she was looking downwards at the exit... but it was hard to see much.

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a good deal below her there was a red square... and that was about it. the square was obviously painted and wasn't anywhere nearby but she wasn't sure what else was going on. she couldn't really make any words out, just the general sounds of people. lily could at least see she was somewhat close to the end of the tunnel... but she was confused as to why the voices suddenly hit her. when lily sent that thought backwards,

kat answered with. [hunter thinks there must be a ward for the sound to prevent it leaking out. maybe to keep animals away? oh, and if you're wondering yes there are air filter spells apparently but they also leave a smell or a not-smell? hunter was a bit confusing with the explanation.]

lily sent back a mental thank you as she continued downwards. lily made sure to remain facing downwards so she could catch the edge of the vent. as she continued her descent she could almost hear the mission impossible theme. wait... no hang on. kat!

[what? i've got nothing else to do and it seemed thematically appropriate.]

then why did you only start up now?

right that's not too hard. any preference for who i poke at?

a few moments passed before kat had an answer. [apparently you're best off either asking someone that's old but not like... too old because they'll have time or someone who looks official because they're probably wanting to seem important? i don't really get it...]

i'm guessing all the actual officials will be doing something or look like more normal people because this is a mining town? or maybe it isn't anymore? not sure if that was made clear...

[i think it might have been at one point but it isn't really anymore? look i don't know either. just... go down and ask. it'll be fine lily. i can feel your hesitation but you're strong. much stronger then the average civilian and i'm sure it'll be fine.]

urgh... i know that intellectually but i guess knowing that the trip down the vent was so easy i feel like i'm waiting for the other shoe to drop or something. i mean, sure i had to rethink how i used my shadows a bit but that was barely anything.

[what, were you expecting lasers? sharks? sharks with lasers on top of their heads and metal teeth?]

i mean... i guess i'd expected to come out somewhere a bit more dangerous then randomly over the town.

[one could argue that being deposited over the town from a great height is pretty dangerous.]

*yeah but not for me... and i'm not even sure it's that dangerous to everyone else. sure it's high up but it's directly over a large building. i'm still not the best at gauging distances in my memphis form because of my small size and much better eyesight... but it's probably only like twenty or thirty metres?*

[lily... that's pretty lethal for a normal person.]

*oh yeah...*